Beer-racking machine.



S. SCHLANGEN.

BEER RAQKING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED 0GT.4, 1909.

Patented Nov. 21, 1911.

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S. SGHLANGEN.

BEER RAGKING MACHINE.

APPLIGATION FILED 0017.4, 1909.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

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S. SCHLANGEN.

BEER BACKING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED 00T.4, 1909.

1,009,695, Patented Nov. 21, 1911.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

a I if UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

SIMON SCI-ILANGEN, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO SCHLANGEN RACKERCOM- PANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

BEER-BACKING MACHINE.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SIMON sCI-ILANGEN, a citizen of the United States,residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Beer-Racking Machines,of which the following is a specification.

The present invention relates to racking machines of the general typeshown in my Patent, No. 940,366, patented November 16, 1909; and theobject of the present invention is to improve the construction of suchmachine in certain particulars, so that the entire racking operation canbe performed without the loss of any beer and under the mostadvantageous conditions.

The invention relates particularly to the means provided for permittingthe withdrawal of the filling tube under conditions of equalizedpressure and to the means provided for creating atmospheric pressurewithin the barrel prior to the breaking of the seal, in order to preventa violent explosion when the seal is broken.

In certain prior constructions, and in the application above referredto, no provision has been made for equalizing the pressure in the tankand in the barrel during the withdrawal of the filling tube, with theresult that, as the tube was withdrawn from the liquid under pressurewithin the barrel or package, the pressure within the barrel or packagewould be decreased prior to the breaking of the seal by reason of thein-fiow into the space previously occupied by the filling tube. As aresult of this decrease in pressure, the beer under pressure would havean opportunity to expand prior to the breaking of the seal, so that whenthe seal was broken, the beer would flow out in greater or less volumeprior to the driving of the bung.

The object of the present invention is to supply pressure to the barrelas the filling tube is withdrawn, so that a full head of pressure willbe maintained on the liquid until the proper time for establishingatmospheric conditions, at which time communication will be establishedwith the at mosphere in preparation for the breaking of the seal. Bymaintaining these conditions, the filling head can be raised and thebung driven before the beer has had an opportunity to expandsufficiently to flow Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed October 4, 1909.

Patented Nov. 21, 1911.

Serial No. 520,910.

out of the bung-hole, with the result that a full package of clear beerwill be secured, without foaming, and without waste.

A further object of the invention is to provide a single valve soconstructed and automatically controlled that it will regulate all ofthe operations to be performed in the equalizing and venting of pressurewithout care or attention on the part of the operator, thereby enablingthe operator to confine his attention to the manipulation of theoperating lever, which controls the flow of pressure to the motorcylinder.

Further objects will appear from a detailed description of theinvention, which consists in the features of construction andcombination of parts hereinafter described and claimed.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a front elevation of the mechanism of aracking machine, showing the motor cylinder in section, and showing thetank broken away at the ends; Fig. 2, an enlarged sectional detail ofthe valve mechanism, filling tube,

and adjacent portions of the filling mechanism, showing the operatingcams and certain other portions of the structure in elevation; Fig. 3, adetail of the upper or fixed cam; Fig. 1, a detail of the lower orslidable cam; and Figs. 5, 6 and 7, cross sectional views of theequalization valve, showing the valve plug in various positions ofadjustment.

The racking mechanism of the present invention is attached to a tank 8,which may be of any suitable length to support the desired number ofracking mechanisms as is usual in the art. The racking mechanismembodies a motor cylinder 9, provided with a piston 10, to which issecured a piston rod 11, which latter is secured to a cross head 12,from which depends a casing 13, which receives the inner end of a packedelbow 14:, the outer end of which elbow receives a liquor supply hose16. The casing 13 has slidably mounted therein a sleeve 17, which hasscrew-threaded thereunto an upper section of a filling tube 18, thelower section of which is of a size and length to enter the barrel, keg,or other package which it is intended to fill. The casing 13 isprovided, with a circular flange 19, and the sleeve 17 is provided nearits lower end with a shoulder 20, and interposed between the flange 19and the shoulder 20 is a spring 21, which keeps a constant springtension downwardly upon the sleeve 17. The piston rod 11 is provided, atits lower end, with a stem 22, which extends through the interior of thefilling tube and is provided, at its lower end, with an outlet valve 23,having a sealing ring 24 of suitable size to seal the lower end of thefilling tube, and the seal is constantly maintained by the spring 21holding the tube downward under spring tension until the movement of thefilling tube is arrested by the sleeve 17 contacting the cross head 36,after which the continued descent of the piston rod will break thecontact of the filling tube with the sealing ring 24, allowing theliquor to flow out.

The cross head is provided with laterally extending arms 27 and 28,which embrace movable guide rods 29, which carry a weight 30 at theirupper ends and have their lower ends entered into and rigidly heldwithin a movable cross head 31, from which depends the sealing head 26.The latter is surrounded by a tapered sealing plug 32, which is adaptedto be pressed into the bung-hole of the barrel or package when the sealis made. The movable cross head is provided, on its interior, with achamber 33, which communicates with the annular channel 25, and thecross head has mounted thereon a valve casing 34, which furnishes, onits interior, a tapered chamber, within which is mounted a hollow valveplug 35, the construction of which forms the gist of the presentinvention. The movable guide rods 29 are themselves entered through andguided by a fixed cross head 36, which is supported from a pair of fixedsupporting rods 37, the upper ends of which are entered through lugs orflanges 38, which form part of and outwardly project from a base 39 ofthe motor cylinder. Obviously, other means for supporting the workingparts of the mechanism might be provided.

The raising and lowering of the piston 10 is accomplished by pressureadmitted through lower and upper pressure supply pipes 40 and 41respectively, which are controlled by a suitable valve mechanism 42,operated by means of a main operating lever 43, by which the attendantcan regulate the flow of pressure either below or above the piston, asthe case may be. In order that the formation and operation of the valvemechanism 34 may be fully understood, a brief description of the methodof raising and lowering the filling head and associated parts will nowbe given.

With the parts in raised position, as shown in Fig. 1, pressure will beadmitted through the pipe 41 to the top of the cylinder, thereby forcingdown the piston 10 and with it the cross head 12 and the valve casing13, which carries with it, the filling tube, by reason of the contact ofthe circular flange 19 with the sleeve 17, allowing the filling tube todescend into the barrel or package. The movable guide rods 29 areconnected by a cross connection 44, which is adapted to rest upon and beheld against the cross head 12 by the pressure of the weight 30, saveonly when the descent of the sealing head has been arrested by contactwith the bung-hole of a barrel, after which the cross head 12 will dropaway from the cross connection 44. It will be understood that themovable guide rods 29 and the movable cross head 31, together with thevalve 34 and parts associated therewith, will all descend until the sealhas been made, since these portions of the mechanisms are not positivelyconnected with the piston rod, but only move therewith under theinfluence of gravity, so long as such movement is unimpeded by thecontact of the sealing head with the barrel. After the seal has thusbeen made, the cross head 12, valve casing 13, and filling tube, willcontinue to descend until the lower end of the filling tube is in closeproximity to the bottom of the barrel, at which point the movement ofthe filling tube will be arrested by the engagement of the lower end ofthe upper section 17 of the filling tube with the face of the cross head36. A slight additional movement of the piston rod and cross head 12serves to break the connection bet-ween the filling tube and the seal24, opening the valve controlling the out-flow of beer at the lower endof the filling tube, so that the beer can flow down into the barrel.

The construction of the valve 34 will be more readily understood whenits function has been fully explained. The valve is intended, on itsfirst movement, to establish communication between the interior of thetank and the barrel or package to be filled; on its second movement, tocut ofi' such communication and open communication between the sightglass and the barrel or package, in order to permit the beer retained inthe sight glass after the previous filling operation to flow back intothe barrel or package under conditions of equalized pressure; on itsthird movement, to establish communication between the interior and thepackage, to permit the in-flow of medium under pressure to compensatefor the withdrawal of the filling tube; and on its fourth movement, toestablish communication with the atmosphere in order to prevent an eX-plosion when the seal is broken.

In order to perform the various operations above noted, the valve isconstructed as shown in Figs. 5, 6 and 7 The valve casing 34 is providedwith a pair of nipples 45 and 46, the centers of which are spaced about120 degrees apart, which nipples communicate with the interior of thevalve casing and with the hollow plug therein through oorts 4:7 and 48respectively. The casing is further provided with a vent hole ll),diametrically opposite to the port 4-7. The hollow valve plug isprovided, on one side, with a slot or opening 50, adapted to registerwith any one of the holes or slots in the valve casing previouslyreferred to. The nipple -46 has entered thereinto the end of anequalization pipe 51, which leads up to and communicates with the top ofthe tank through a hose 52 or other channel of communication. The nipple15 has entered therein the end of an overflow pipe 53, which leads up toand communicates with the top of the tank through a hose or otherchannel of comiminication 54. The overflow pipe has located therein asight glass 55, which is adapted to indicate the presence of beer afterthe package or receptacle has been filled.

lVit-h the parts in the position shown in Fig. 5, which is the ventingposition, the first movement of the plug valve, in a counterclockwisedirection, will serve to establish communication between the sealinghead and the equalization pipe, which estal lishes equalized conditionsin the barrel, as indicated in Fig. 6. The next movement in the samedirection serves to cut off such equalizing comn'iunication and opencommunication with the sight glass, to allow the beer previously trappedin the sight glass to flew back under equalized conditions to thebarrel. The next, or return, movement of the valve, in a clockwisedirection, will serve to bring the parts again in a position, shown inFig. 6, to reestablish equalizing conditions; and the next movement, inclockwise direction, will bring the plug to the venting or initialposition. Automatic means for effecting these four movements areprovided and will now be explained.

The valve plug is provided with an elongated, vertically extending stem56, having in one side a slot or channel 57. The rod is slidably androtatably mounted through a bearing ring or collar 57 in the fixed crosshead 36, and its upper end ii'egisters with a hole 58 in the uppermovable cross head 12, which hole affords clearance, allowing the uppermovable cross head to descend after the valve stem has reached itslowest position of movement. It will be understood that the valve stemrises and falls with the lower movable cross head, which movement,however, is restricted to the' movement necessary to lower the sealinghead into sealing position, after which the upper movable cross headwill have a very considerable degree of movement as the filling tube islowered. The valve stem is provided with a fixedly mounted upper ,camsleeve 59 and a slidably mounted lower cam sleeve 60, which latter isprovided with an inwardly extending spline 61, which engages the grooveor channel 57, whereby the stem and the cam sleeve are held againstindependent rotary movement, and the stem is allowed to have a verticalmovement independently of the cam sleeve, which rests upon the bearingring 57, through which the valve stem ex tends. The operating movementsare imparted to the upper and lower cam sleeves by means of a roller(32, which is journaled in a bracket 68, which outwardly extends fromone side of the valve casing 13, the arrangement being one whereby thevertical movei'rents of the valve sleeve will cause the roller to rideupon the spirally extending cam surfaces 6% and 65 in the lower andupper cam sleeves respectively, thereby im parting the i'iecessaryrotary movements to the stem for actuating the "alve plug in the mannerpreviously indicated.

When the parts are in raised position, the roller will bear against theupper end of the upper cam sleeve, and during the initial descent of theparts, and prior to the time when the lower movable cross head isarrested by the sealing operation, the roller and cam sleeve will movedown in unison. As soon as the seal has been made, however, thecontinued movements of the roller will initially operate the upper camsleeve, and thereafter operate the lower cam sleeve immediately beforethe roller comes to rest. The return movements of the roller willproduce similar operations in reverse direction and order of sequence.

The operation of the device will be understood from the foregoingdescription, from which it will be seen that the operation of theequalizing valve mechanism entirely automatic and out of the control ofthe attendant, whose sole duty is to operate the controlling valve in amanner to lower the piston when a barrel or package has been placed inposition beneath the till- .ing tube, and to raise the piston after thefilling operation is complete and the beer has arisen in the sightglass. All of the equalizing operations will be perforl'l'iedautomatically between these two controlling operations, so that no beerwill be admitted to the package, save under conditions of equalizedpressure, which is especially important as regards the admission of thepre viously trapped beer in the sight glass. In some prior constructionsthis beer was blown back out of the sight glass before equalizedpressure conditions had been established, which caused foaming and lossof beer as a result. The arrangement is one which maintains equalizedconditions until immediately before the breaking of the seal, at whichtime atmospheric conditions are established and the excess of pressurevented in an easy and natural manner, and without any explosion due tothe breaking of a seal. As a result of the present arrangement, the

sealing head can be raised and swung out of the way and the bung drivenbefore the beer has expanded sufliciently to flow out and waste, so thatthere will be no foaming from the bung-hole and no blowing or otherdisturbances within the barrel or package, tending to produce foamduring the filling operation.

The valve arrangement for controlling the discharge from the fillingtube is such that the filling tube when raised will be full of beer, sothat the next opening of the valve will release the beer near the bottomof the barrel or package without any falling of beer, which would tendto cause foaming.

The construction of the entire device is such that the racking operationcan be performed by unskilled persons without the loss of any beer andwithout the disagreeable and unsanitary conditions which are frequentlyoccasioned in breweries when beer is wasted during the rackingoperation.

In my Patent, No. 940,366, the packing ring 24 is described as alsocontacting and sealing the opening 25 in the seal ing head. In thepresent construction I do not desire this to be the case, sincecommunication must be established between the valve and the interior ofthe package even after the filling tube has risen. I, therefore, intendin the present construction to time the movement of the filling tube sothat it will stop before the packing ring 24 has traveled high enough tocontact the opening 25.

I claim:

1. In a racking machine, a filling tube, means for raising and loweringthe filling tube, a slidable cross head, a casing secured to the crosshead into which the filling tube is entered, a valve on the end of thefilling tube, a tension member within the casing acting against thefilling tube to maintain a continual downward pressure on the valve,whereby a seal is made at the end of the filling tube to prevent theescape of liquid therefrom during the raising and lowering of saidfilling tube, and a pipe leading from the source of liquid supply tosaid casing, substantially as described.

2. In a racking machine, a filling tube,

means for raising and lowering the filling tube, a valve on the end ofthe filling tube, a slidable cross head, a casing secured to the crosshead into which the filling tube is enpressure on the valve, whereby aseal is made at the end of the filling tube to prevent the escape ofliquid therefrom during the raising and lowering of said filling tube,and a pipe leading from the source of said liquid supply to said casing,substantially as described.

3. In a racking machine, in combination with filling mechanism, valvemechanism for controlling the passage of air and overflow liquid intothe package, comprising a fixed valve casing having three ports therein,a rotatable valve plug having a single port, means operatively connectedfor oscillating said valve plug, whereby its passage registers once ateach operation with the outer ports of the casing and twice with themiddle port, whereby the pressure between the package and tank is twiceequalized, communication established once bet-ween the receptacle foroverflow liquid and the package, and communication established oncebetween the outside air and the interior of the package, said lattercommunication taking place prior to the breaking of the seal, the valveplug and casing remaining in fixed relation to the package at all times,substantially as described.

SIMON SCHLANGEN.

lVitnesses:

M. P. BOND, EPHRAIM BANNING.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G.

